Hugo family saves crash victim from burning car

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A 34-year-old man is lucky to be alive, thanks to a little luck and maybe a little fate.

While several drivers passed a car that had crashed, a Hugo, Minnesota family pulled over. They gave the man inside a second chance, by pulling him out right before the car went up in flames.

Katie-Jo Williams and her family were planning for a quiet day. They were headed northbound on I-94 and 53rd on their way to a riverbank to spread her father’s ashes when they saw the crash.

“The front of it was smashed up and the man inside was passed out behind the wheel,” said Williams.

They were the first to stop. They all started running to the minivan that was now catching fire.

“We were both trying to pull him out,” said Williams. “And he was pretty out of it and wanting to get his stuff. And the car was smoking pretty heavy and it was just starting to catch fire.”

The driver kept wanting to go back to his car when finally her husband grabbed the driver by the face and looked him straight in the eye.

“At one point my husband just stopped and had him look him in the eyes and he was like ‘Look at me. Whatever is in that vehicle can be replaced. You cannot be replaced. We got to get away from the vehicle,’” she recalled.

About that time, State Patrol arrived and treated the driver with Narcan, the medication used to reverse a heroin overdose.

Williams can't help but believe in fate that she and her family were meant to be the ones to save the driver as she and her family have also suffered from addiction.

“I believe there's a purpose for everything and God placed us there for a reason,” said Williams.

She and her family left and went on to the riverbank that day as they found peace that afternoon. She hopes the driver they saved can find his own peace.

“I don't know what he's going through what or what has happened to him in his life to cause him to feel like he needs to self-medicate, but I want him to know that there's a plan and a purpose for his life,” she said.